China's latest move making negative nucleic acid test results of COVID-19 mandatory for inbound air passengers will help facilitate the flow of transnational personnel, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

"The measure will help promote the flow of transnational personnel, ensure the resumption of work and production of various countries and facilitate the restoration of personnel exchanges," spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press briefing.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday issued a joint statement announcing passengers on flights to China must furnish a negative test result prior to boarding.

According to Wang, nucleic acid testing is currently a major diagnostic method for identifying COVID-19 and generally, all countries recognize it. As the epidemic in some countries has been brought under control or better alleviated, there were growing signs of gradual resumption of personnel exchanges and international flights, he said.

Wang reiterated that Chinese and foreign passengers taking flights to China must complete the tests within five days before embarking, and related airlines would check the test report when boarding.

Chinese embassies would carefully evaluate the nucleic acid test capability of the host country, and determine the implementation period for each country based on comprehensive communication and consultation with the host country, the spokesperson said.